Kobo Hacks Database

[pipcat]

I've made another tool to show info about hacks, similar than Kobo Patch Gui, but in a web site and with a database behind. We can browse patches for each firmware and select them to download as .patch files.

http://pip.cat/khd/

This database is a repository of Kobo hacks discussed at MobileRead Developer's Corner. It contains all hacks included by GeoffR in Metazoa firmware patches and also other hacks published elsewhere. Metazoa hacks are imported by a script for every firmware version, and other hacks are imported by hand.

[sherman]

This is awesome!

Can I stop feeling guilty about not updating my GUI? I actually have a mostly completed update floating around, but I haven't been motivated enough to go hunting down all its remaining issues. Therefore it has not been released.

However, believe this supersedes my efforts by far.

Great work.

[Khiron]

goddammit this is awesome

[pazos]

great work and nice web UI, BTW

[yasteora]

nice job！

[pipcat]

Thx ;-)

- Added an option in Settings to include firmware files in downloaded zip. (Surquizu's idea)
Complete firmware is too big (80 mb), so it only contains files to patch (15 mb) and is only available for latest fw.

- Added a page to submit new hacks or update existing ones.
http://pip.cat/khd/submit.php
Form is ready and you can paste patches code and analyze, but final insert/update is not made.
I'm not sure how to proceed here...
Allow everybody to modify database ? Give a password to people who wants to update ? Manage it myself ?

TODOS ?
- Add rating to hacks, so users can vote which ones are most useful.
- Add user login to allow remember our own checks and customize some parms in certains patchs.

[pipcat]

Originally Posted by pipcat

I'm not sure how to proceed here... Allow everybody to modify database ? Give a password to people who wants to update ? Manage it myself ?

Finally, I mixed three options above and add a link to http://pip.cat/khd
- Everybody can submit hacks. Patch files are stored and an email is sent to webmaster (myself) to do the final update to database.
- With a password we can insert/update directly to db. For instance I use for myself but if someone wants we can share that task.

My english is quite bad, so if someone wants to do a revision of website texts, it would be nice ;-)

[pipcat]

Added user login in http://pip.cat/khd

You can register your own user to customize your hacks. When you are logged, your selection of hacks is recorded in your profile. You can also upload your custom .patch files to get your preferences and possible different patch codes. Your customized hacks have a yellow background color, but if your patch code is diferent from default they will be green and you can see both patch codes.

[pipcat]

- Added profiles to users (Surquizu's idea). Useful if you have diferent devices or you want diferent configurations.
- Added transfer to other profiles/firmwares. Useful if you change to a new firmware and you want to keep the same hacks.

[pipcat]

I think web is almost ready, and there is a summary of it:

Kobo Hacks Database (KHD) http://pip.cat/khd

KHD can be used to browse and download hacks and also to manage them.

Browse hacks:
- Select your Kobo firmware (most recent is selected by default).
- For each hack, this information is displayed:

- Included in Metazoa pack or found elsewhere.
- Included in previous firmware or it's a new hack.
- Multi-version (same patch can be done on different firmwares).
- Name (if preceded by an icon it's a grouped hack, mutually-exclusive alternatives).
- Description.
- Patch code and file to patch.
- Links to mobileread forums for more info.
- Checkboxes to enable/select for download.
- Link to more info (how KHD users customized it).

Download hacks:
- A .zip file is generated with all required .patch files (one for every firmware file to patch).
- You can choose what to include in zip file:

- .patch files (few KB)
- .patch files and Tools [patch32lsb for Windows/Linux/Mac] (+/- 500 KB)
- .patch files, Tools, Firmware [not complete set, but contains all needed files to patch] (+/- 15 MB)

- You can download all hacks (with patch_enable according to checkboxes) or just selected ones.

Manage hacks:
- You need to register your username and login to manage hacks.
- In login form, check "Remember login" to create a permanent cookie to enter directly with your user.
- Custom profiles:

- Profiles are used to have diferent customizations (Ex: one for Glo Hd, one for Aura H2O, one with differents patches, ...)
- You have one default profile but you can add more if you need them.

- Upload your own .patch file(s):

- If you already patched firmware, upload your files (libnickel.so.1.0.0.patch, libadobe.so.patch and librmsdk.so.1.0.0.patch)
- After upload processing, your selection of hacks enabled or not, and your possible different patch codes are stored in your current profile.

- Besides uploading, you can also customize your hacks from web site:

- If you check/uncheck a hack, background color changes to yellow, meaning it's your own selection and not the default one (white background).
- If you modify patch code because some patches requires that to suit your preferences, background color changes to green, meaning patch code is different from default.
- Checkboxes are directly updated in your profile when you click them, but when you modify patch code in textarea, a buttom will appear to update and you need to click on it to do.

- Transfer hacks selection:

- This is useful if you change to a new firmware and you want to keep your selected hacks.
- Your selection of hacks enabled/not enabled will be transfered to another firmware/profile.

Submit hacks:
- This form is only for people who wants to submit new hacks to KHD.
- A small guide of how patch codes are interpreted is shown.
- Paste patch codes and press Analyze to process. You will get a summary of all detected patches.
- Repeat until results are ok for you, and press "Send".

[pipcat]

Updated website KHD:
- New form to edit user profiles. Added Privacy public/private and Notes.
- New page to view and download public user profiles. http://pip.cat/khd/kobo/

The goal of this is to allow to share our profiles (collection of hacks) to our friends, but also to open a link with AutoPatch from frostschutz to allow the whole process of patching inside the device.

I tried kobo browser with pip.cat/khd and is not very usable. But pip.cat/khd/kobo/ is a plain page without bootstrap/jquery and works better, enough to select a profile and download it.

In first instance, from a pc we manage our hacks and profiles, and let them ready to be downloaded from device, or we can skip this if we use public profiles from other users. And from device, we choose the desired profile, download it and proceed to AutoPatch. That's the goal, but not possible yet.
- .zip file is not downloaded by default, so we need a device patched with "Allow download all in Browser".

- "Connection" with AutoPatch to trigger patch process is pending. Hope frostschutz could do it or evaluate if it's possible to do!
For example, if from kobo browser we go to http://pip.cat/khd/kobo/?firmware=13&profile=3 and we download .zip file with .patch files, could AutoPatch detect that .zip and process it ? I suppose that could be done on restarting, but not before.
The downloaded file in device is stored in root as "download.php" but it's a .zip file!

AutoPatch post: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253265

[boriar]

Many thanks for that options. I like AutoPatch and your KHD, and all together is GREEEEATTTT!
I hope try it in the near holidays

[tshering]

@piptcat
Just want to tell you that I am trying to provide some easy means for KSM users to download patch files with the help of your profiles pages, and to apply the patches on the device.

Currently, I have the following things working.

• hkd_download_patches.sh; this connects to your page and tries to retrieve the profile names and identifiers for that FW version that is installed on the device; if successful it provides the user with a menu that offers the available profiles; if the user selects one, the corresponding archive will be downloaded to the device
• hkd_apply_patches.sh; this backs up the libraries to be patched, and runs the patching process.

I have these two scripts working, but I think I should do some more testing before publishing them. Of course, the first script can only work if you do not change much of the code of your web pages.

[pipcat]

Thx tshering!
Created a web service to return available public profiles for a firmware, to be used by KSM or any other tool that wants.
Script get_info.php is called with mandatory parms fwid and revnum, and optionally userid.
It returns info in JSON format, with idfw and an array of profiles (idprofile and name), that are needed to call download.php to get final zip with patches.

Example:

http://pip.cat/khd/kobo/get_info.php?fwid=3.19.5761&revnum=0e028f3185&userid=3
returns 
{"idfw":"13","profiles":{"3":"Kobo Glo Hd","14":"Testing Kobo Glo Hd"}}

So, you can compose final zips:
http://pip.cat/khd/kobo/download.php?firmware=13&profile=3
http://pip.cat/khd/kobo/download.php?firmware=13&profile=14

[pipcat]

This is a beta method to auto-patch entirely from Kobo device, without the need to connect to a computer (after installing autopatch ;-).

I tested on a Glo Hd and works nicely. This is not for everyone, but if you're interested: https://github.com/pipcat/kobo/tree/.../khd-autopatch

It's quite comfortable and simple. I open Kobo browser with http://pip.cat/khd/kobo as default page, download profile "My Glo Hd" and plug device to usb-charger. In +/- one minute patching is done and kobo restarted. Later I download profile "Testing" and re-plug and I get another configuration.

See notes info because some people reported different benhaviour when connecting to a usb-charger. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=38

Readme.txt:

Spoiler:

khd-autopatch
=============

AutoPatch system to be used with KHD website.


INSTALL:
--------

Create a KoboRoot.tgz with:
- /etc/udev/rules.d/99-khd-autopatch.rules
- /usr/local/khd-autopatch/ patch32lsb, check.sh, patch.sh

Important! you need to include the original binaries of your firmware adding suffix -original:
- /usr/local/Kobo/ libnickel.so.1.0.0-original libadobe.so-original librmsdk.so.1.0.0-original

(it would be nice to find a way to get original binaries automatically, but its a TODO...)


USAGE:
------

- With internet acces in Kobo device:
	- Open Kobo browser and go to http://pip.cat/khd/kobo 
	- Select a profile for your firmware and download.
	- You can create your own profiles registering at http://pip.cat/khd (not from Kobo device)

- Without internet, connecting with usb cable:
	- Create a .zip file with your .patch files or download it from KHD.
	- Copy to root of device with name download.php(.zip)
	
- After a download.php(.zip) is created, plug Kobo device to usb-charger.
	After about 40 seconds, zip file will be processed and deleted and device rebooted to apply changes.
	(40s in a Glo Hd, maybe can take longer on older devices)
	Info about the process will be at:
	- .khd-autopatch/logs : Log files with patching process messages.
	- .khd-autopatch/last : Latest .patch files used to patch binaries.
	- .khd-autopatch/todo : Temporary folder, should be empty after process.

- To restore all original binaries:
	- Create an empty download.php(.zip) in root folder and plug Kobo device to usb-charger.

- To uninstall:
	- Create an empty download.php(.zip) in root folder and an empty file uninstall in .khd-autopatch folder and plug device to usb-charger.


INFO:
-----

- Launching khd-autopatch:

check script is launched when we plug our device to a usb-charger, but not when we plug to a computer.
I tested with a powercube 2A and a Motorola mobile charger .85A, and works nice.
But some people reported different benhaviour and when they plug to usb-charger they get prompted as if connected to a computer. In this case, this method is not valid because autopatch will not be trigered, but maybe could be done similar hooking on "usb_host" rather than "usb_plug".

- Patching process:

When patch script processes a zip file containing patches, all binaries (libnickel, libadobe and librmsdk) will be patched or restored.
So zip file must always contains all patches to do. It's not intented to patch one by one.

Example, with a zip containing only libnickel.so.1.0.0.patch:
libnickel will be patched from original, and libadobe and librmsdk will be restored to original if they were modified.


ABOUT:
------

- AutoPatch is a tool created by frostschutz
https://github.com/frostschutz/Kobo

- patch32lsb is an open source program created by GeoffR, used by AutoPatch and Metazoa.

- Metazoa firmware patches are packs of hacks maintained by GeoffR
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260100

- KHD (Kobo Hacks Database) is a website created and maintained by pipcat
http://pip.cat/khd


Other info:
-----------

- Writing udev rules: http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html